News from Thailand – April 25, 2013
Indonesia's help is requested in the peace talks between Thailand and rebel group BRN. Thai delegation leader Paradorn Pattanatabut, Secretary General of the National Security Council, has sent a representative to Djakarta to discuss the idea.
The talks are already taking place under the watchful eye of Malaysia; expansion with Indonesia is desirable because southern rebels are presumably trained in that country.
The second peace talks will take place in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. The number of negotiators on both sides is increased from five to nine. The Thai delegation will be reinforced by officials from the Ministry of Justice. Members of the Wadah group, who advise Vice Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung (responsible for security policy in the South), are not part of it.
Thailand and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) reached an agreement in principle in February. The first meeting took place last month. According to Paradorn, other rebel groups are not opposed to the peace talks, but want their local representatives to participate.
– About three hundred kindergarten (kindergarten) teachers and young people demonstrated yesterday at the Yala Central mosque. They demanded the release of Fatimoh Sohman. The 23-year-old tadika teacher has been detained for questioning because a bomb was detonated with her mobile phone in Khok Po (Pattani) on January 22. Her brother has also been detained for questioning. The demonstrators wanted to present a petition to the Internal Security Operations Command in Pattani, but backed down when locals confronted them with signs reading 'No violence'.
A 28-year-old man was arrested in Narathiwat yesterday. He is suspected of robbing a couple on April 1 in Rueso. Ten men then set up a fake checkpoint and apprehended the couple. The pickup was found in Tambom Reang four days later. The man denies any involvement.
– The conviction of James McCormick in London gets a tail in Thailand. The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is considering filing a complaint against the Thai services that bought a GT200 or Alpha 6 bomb detector from his company Comstrac Co through Thai agencies. Detectors of which it has long been established that they work no better than a dowsing rod.
McCormick has managed to sell the device to numerous countries, including Pakistan, Lebanon, Mexico and Thailand. He earned an estimated £50 million from it. The company is said to have paid bribes in Iraq, for which a senior official is on trial.
It is likely that bribes were also paid in Thailand and the NACC is trying with all its might to find out. 13 bomb detectors worth 1.358 billion baht have been purchased by 1,137 services.
– The protest of rural doctors against the new P4P reward system (pay for performance) is entering a new phase, because the Rural Doctors Society (RDS) now accuses the Minister of Health Pradit Sinthawanarong of corruption. The minister is said to have introduced the system to give private hospitals a business advantage.
The RDS reasoning is as follows: The new system moves doctors out of public health care, giving private hospitals a wider choice of medical staff to select. [You just have to get on it.]
The RDS is also investigating the provision of blood glucose meters to village health volunteers. The supplier of the 80.000 meters has a monopoly position because he also supplies the strips that are required. The RDS will turn over the results of its investigation to the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) union has joined the rural doctors' protest. The union is angry with the minister for his comments about alleged corruption in the construction of the GPO's vaccine factory in Saraburi. Pradit's indiscretion has ruined the reputation of the GPO. He should have waited for the results of the investigation before commenting.'
The Department of Special Investigation (the Thai FBI) is currently investigating the construction. The RDS says the investigation aims to discredit the GPO so that private pharmaceutical companies can take over the drug market.
In the meantime, the minister is not aware of any harm. 'Our public health policy is transparent. The P4P system is a fair solution for medical professionals. It increases efficiency by encouraging staff to work as well as possible.'
– For the third day, red shirts demonstrated yesterday in front of the Constitutional Court. They demand the departure of the nine judges for interfering in the legislative process. The demonstrators are going to the Budget Bureau today with a request to freeze the judges' wages. They are also collecting signatures for a petition to the National Anti-Corruption Commission asking for the judges to be impeached. The police have deployed 150 officers to keep order.
– Fire arrows, and they are not small ones – they are called bang fai – and that also applies to lanterns that can hinder and even endanger aviation. Recently, a flare in Udon Thani reached an altitude of 3.600 meters, close to an airport. In Ubon Ratchatani, a flare reached 2.700 meters, also at an airport.
Dangerous and prohibited, because flares may not be launched within a radius of 8 kilometers around an airport and they may not exceed 1.500 meters. Violation, warns the Department of Transport, is punishable by life or death. For lanterns, a radius of 6 kilometers applies and it is forbidden to leave them on for 21 hours. Local authorities must inform the airport three days in advance that flares will be fired or lanterns will be sent into the sky.
– An army officer who wishes to remain anonymous [the coward] sees nothing wrong with beating and kicking recruits to get them to line up. 'It is impossible to speak softly to them and treat them like a son. This is a military camp. We prepare soldiers for deadly situations.'
The officer says this in response to the videos of beatings that have recently surfaced and the call of army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha to end these hazing practices. Nevertheless, the man says the trainers in the video clip went on kicking for too long.
– The Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions of the Supreme Court starts the case about loans totaling 9,9 billion baht, concluded with the state bank Krung Thai. Those loans were granted to someone who was registered as a defaulter. Those involved, a total of 27 people including former Prime Minister Thaksin and the KTB president, are accused of malfeasance, corruption and violation of financial laws.
– A human skeleton has been found in a rubber plantation in Kalasin that could date back to the Iron Age. Pottery dating back to that time was found with the skeleton, the Fine Arts Department says. Jewelry has also been found. There may be more skeletons from that time in the plantation.
Political news
– The rule that wives, parents or children of MPs and ministers may not sit in the Senate may lapse, says the parliamentary committee that is examining the proposal to amend Article 115 of the constitution. The rule was incorporated into the constitution in 1997. According to critics, the principle of 'checks and balances' is violated when the rule lapses.
Parliament already approved proposals to amend 4 constitutional articles in the first term. When it returns from recess in August, treatment will continue.
– There is again considerable bickering by politicians, although parliament is in recess. 128 Democratic MPs have asked the President of the Senate to have the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Somsak Kiatsuranont, stripped of his status as a member of parliament. Somsak is said to have made a procedural error during a vote on the proposals to amend the constitution.
After the signatures are verified, the Senate President forwards the request to the National Anti-Corruption Commission. And if approved, it will send it back to the Senate for impeachment proceedings to begin. [Don't Thai politicians have better things to do than constantly bother each other?]
Economic news
– Who dials the telephone number 1188 of the Yellow Pages, ends up in prison. In other words, the lady on the other end of the line may be a female prisoner. She is in the call center of Teleinfo Media, located in the Correctional Institution for Drug Addicts in Pathum Thani.
Teleinfo is the first private company to use prisoners. The project aims to create jobs for detainees. This is done in the context of the Corporate Social Responsibility policy. The employees can apply for a permanent job after their time is up.
The company pays a monthly salary of 10.000 baht, half of which goes to the detainee, 35 percent to the prison and 15 percent to the jailers. A total of 600 people work at the information and reservation number. [The message does not state how many detainees work in the call centre.]
– The Industrial Works Department is calling on industry to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. Although the trend is moving in the right direction, the service is not yet satisfied.
Between 2006 and 2009, 7 to 10 percent of industrial waste went to landfills annually, in 2010 and 2011 5 percent, but last year still more than 1 million tons were landfilled. The service has a target of 200.000 to 500.000 tons per year.
The service has set up a project to encourage factories to reduce the amount of waste or to reuse waste. Last year, 28 of the 54 companies participating in the project received an award because they did not dispose of anything in landfills. It mainly concerned paper and ceramic factories. Many factories in the paper, ethanol and sugar industries use their waste as a source of energy; some have built power plants to generate electricity.
Thailand produces 40 million tons of industrial waste per year, of which 20 million tons consists of scrap, paper and wood that is bought and sold in the market. Phongtheb Jaruampornparn, secretary general of the IWD, says there is no denying that many waste companies are dumping the waste illegally, especially in provinces such as Samut Prakan, Rayong, Chachoengsao, Prachin Buri and Chon Buri.
– Chinatown will get a new hospital with 59 beds early next year. Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Plc (BGH), will renovate two old buildings on Yaowarat soi 5. Thailand's largest hospital group is betting on wealthy ethnic Chinese and Indians and foresees a promising exploitation given the relatively high purchasing power of the Chinese. The hospital also functions as a trial before the group spreads its wings to China.
– Thai companies are hard to get excited about mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as a springboard to growth. This is according to the Grand Thornton International Business Report. Globally, nearly 28 percent of companies are looking to expand either domestically or abroad over the next three years, but in Thailand it's only 11 percent – also well below the 23 percent average for ASEAN countries. Of the 44 countries surveyed, only Estonia, Taiwan and Japan are listed under Thailand.
Furthermore, the survey shows that only 3 percent of Thai business leaders expect to sell their company in the next three years. Only Lithuania scores lower. The average for Asean is 9 percent and for all companies 8 percent.
Director Ian Pascoe of Grant Thornton Thailand says that M&As are a good strategy for growth and scaling. Given the strong economic growth in Thailand, Asean and Asia, he is concerned that so few Thai companies are considering M&A as an option for strategic growth.
Many companies, he says, have huge cash reserves that yield little or no return. Business owners would do well to look across borders, particularly emerging markets, to look for growth opportunities.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post